it's a filmy thing

Witness the beginning of a happy ending

20161 h 48 min

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Overview

Based upon Marvel Comics’ most unconventional anti-hero, DEADPOOL tells the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life.

Actors

Ahh Deadpool you had me at the opening credits. As the list of characters we were about to encounter rolled across the screen…”British villain….moody teen…CGI character…the writers (the real superheroes!)” I knew this was going to be fun. This is the first comedy film, since starting my movie journey in December, that I’ve laughed at all the way through. I loved the comic styling of the anti hero and the frequent breaks in the fourth wall. Of course this wouldn’t be a Marvel Comic film without tons of action and in this it is particularly gory albeit balletically choreagraphed. Sexy, irreverent, sweary and hilariously funny, what’s not to love.

To say I really wanted to like this film doesn’t sound quite right but an investigative journalism film that involves the Catholic Church and a cover up is of particular interest. I couldn’t fault the acting, Mark Ruffalo was particularly excellent, and I’m sure the storyline was accurate as befits a piece of recent and shocking history. I was also relieved it didn’t sensationalise the persistent clerical abuse of children. In all those respects it ticked boxes but I felt it was too little, too late. We know what happened, sadly and at the beginning of the film when the team at The Boston Globe believe that 13 priests are involved we know that the investigation would go on to reveal that this was just the tip of a Titanicesque iceberg. I wasn’t surprised at the all pervading nature of the church, its ability to cover up and inveigle itself around the great and the good to gloss over its shortcomings. I lived in rural Ireland during the 80’s and saw first hand how this can work. Spotlight was a competent, well acted, respectful movie but, for me, there was something missing and it felt about half an hour too long.

There were no surprises here. A road movie with a not very unique storyline. Straight up young guy whisked off by his recently widowed grandfather to have days and nights of debauchery in Florida. Of course this is all a rouse by clever Grandpa to encourage the young ‘un to follow his dream and not live his life to please others. From The Graduate to The Hangover and many more in between we have seen it all before and the critics have absolutely panned this movie. It’s rude, downright crude but that shouldn’t come as a surprise if you’ve seen the trailers. The humour at times is homophobic which never sits well. I was a little confused after De Niro makes several inappropriate references and then when his ‘victim’ is attacked by bullies DeNiro defends him and makes the bully apologise with a little speech about how he’s from another time when this kind of humour was acceptable. Writers back tracking or Grandpa being played ironically? All that being said I did laugh out loud several times. I suspect that some of the younger critics disgust with this movie might be about older people being horny…ewww. We know, of course, that sex was invented by the young and to imagine that anyone over 40 indulges is pretty gross. It was in my day too. Ahh..the things we learn. I wasn’t offended by the language or sexual references but what is it lately with vaginas? It seems like every movie I see lately mentions vaginas..it’s like they’ve just discovered the word or maybe a censorship committee somewhere has just deemed it acceptable for mainstream films so directors feel obliged to pop one in, so to speak. Dirty, dirty film, but a few laughs and I can forgive De Niro a lot.

I wasn’t enamoured by the trailer for ‘The Revenant’ and I left this film until it was the only one left at the cinema I hadn’t seen before I somewhat reluctantly booked my ticket. The thought of almost 3 hours watching someone crawl across a snowy tundra left me cold.

Again I was totally wrong (are we seeing a pattern here?) this was magnificent, although not so stunning if you’re in any way squeamish. Blood and guts galore and a relentless storyline that left me breathless and no opportunity at all to glance at my watch and start working out how may minutes before I can go home.

DiCaprio was amazing as Hugh Glass , the hunter/skinner left for dead after a bear attack who literally crawled out of the grave to find the man who left him for dead and extract revenge. Even with my pre-judgement reluctance I was dragged into the story and felt at the end as though I’d hobbled every damn mile with Mr Glass.

Beautifully shot with stunning CGI, gripping storyline and fabulous acting..what’s not to love. Even if you think it’s not your kind of thing, go see it anyway.

Love knows no boundaries

20151 h 57 min

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Overview

Jack is a young boy of 5 years old who has lived all his life in one room. He believes everything within it are the only real things in the world. But what will happen when his Ma suddenly tells him that there are other things outside of Room?

I hadn’t read the novel and only had a vague idea of what Room was about. Although I could see how the storyline would work well in a book I had my doubts about how it could translate to film. I was so wrong!

The first half is a masterpiece of claustrophobia and tension. Real and TV is five year old Jack’s demarkation of the world around him, confined with his mother in a tiny room from birth. Reality is whatever is in Room and TV is everything else and we see through Jack his confusion as he tries to get to grips with the concept of reality outside Room and the possibility of escape.

The story deftly avoids trite and easy and the second half is an honest examination of suddenly having your hopes and dreams fulfilled, the fragility of adults and the resilience of kids. I disagree with the criticism that the last half fell flat. The overwhelming sense of relief more than carried me through some of the more difficult scenes of family dynamics and overall the film was an uplifting celebration of the strength of the human spirit.

Incredible performances by Brie Larson as Ma and Jacob Tremblay as Jack made this the film of year so far for me. Take tissues.